Tales of adventures in quilting, gardening, photography and cooking from the Kingdom of Chiconia

Big Girl 3: the Husband’s new ‘office’

Meet Big Girl 3, the third of her lineage, all 26 metres/85 feet of her. Brand spanking new, still reeking of fresh plastic and leather, and all her chrome sparkly as anything.

The Husband of Chiconia and his two other team drivers work a 4 day, 4 night, 4 off shift. During the day shifts, they drive 1,000km/620 miles a day and 500km/310 miles at night, clocking up a total of 6,000km/ 3,728 miles a week. The truck is in motion for nearly the full 24 hours, only being off the road for fuelling and checks and handover for about 1 hour each day. That means the truck clocks up 547,500kms/340,200 miles a year. Their team has one of the longest working days and highest odometer readings in the company, which is why they get a new truck pretty regularly.

Back in the early days of Big Girl 2, I made the boys a quilt for the truck, assembled from their recycled work shirts. Yesterday, we transferred that, his two matching pillows and a box of tools and cleaning equipment into Big Girl 3. She’s all clean and lovely and pristine, but with the days they put in and the hazards they face on the road, that probably won’t last too long.

The company names each truck as well as having personalised registration plates. Big Girl 1 was ‘Safely Home’. Big Girl 2 was ‘Always Safe II’, and Big Girl 3 is ‘Walala Wasala’, which apparently means ‘you snooze, you lose’ in Zulu. Don’t ask me why, the only clue I have is that the GM of the company is South African. If they had to have Zulu, I’d have thought something like ‘Phambili Ngesibonelo’ would work better, seeing that they pride themselves on their good drivers. Whatever the name, I hope safety is still high on the priority list.

It’s a potentially dangerous and occasionally demanding job, and I rather like getting the Husband home at the end of the day…

Shame about the lack of windows! That’s 51,000 litres of diesel in those two tanks… about 13,500 gallons. About 64.5 tonne laden, or 71 tons. She’s a very Big Girl…. And all that chrome and aluminium has to be kept sparkling. He does very nearly as much housework as I do!

That is a beautiful rig and I do understand about the danger those guys face. I always give truckers a wide birth and let them over when they need to get there. They have helped me countless times when I was traveling alone and I have a great respect for the work they do. Hauling fuel is really dangerous and I never understand why so many car drivers are careless and thoughtless around them. I’ll keep good thoughts for him. My former SIL’s husband drives truck here but not a fuel truck. The weather is often a factor when he is out as there are all kinds of storms and snow and ice. I wouldn’t want the job for all the money in the world. It’s good you have pictures while she’s still pretty. 🙂

I think if he had just one message for car drivers it would be “Don’t jump into my safety gap, I can’t stop as fast as you do”. I have a much greater appreciation of *good* truck driving now than I ever did before, and conversely, I’m horrified when the big rigs take huge chances.

With Miz Lizzie, he’s pleasing himself about the route, and can take time to look around. In Big Girl, he watches the same road ‘movie’ in the windscreen every day and has to be very alert, no looking around. Miz Lizzie hauling is a bit of a holiday, she’s a whole lot lighter and more manoeuvrable!

It is…. He talks to me hands free on the phone, listens to audio books on his phone, says hello to other drivers on the two-way, eats the soup and fruit I’ve packed for him, drinks his coffee. It won’t take long before that lovely new truck smell is overcome by the aroma of three blokes and their habits! That said, she’s never stinky, they clean her after every trip.

I just can’t do the glottal clicks… or at least, not without lots of practice! I’m still puzzled why it’s any African language at all, when we have thousands of Aboriginal languages to choose from right here!

That is one beautiful piece of machinery! I remember learning to drive one of those beasts and was stunned at how a lot of drivers have no respect for something that big. He puts a lot of hours in and I can understand how driving Miz Lizzie is like a vacation.

He learned to drive the big stuff in the Army, and decided that he liked a truck cab as his workplace. One thing led to another, and a Dangerous Goods licence. If people only knew what was involved, they’d give the big rigs a lot more space and treat the load with much more respect…

I worked for an auto testing facility and we drove everything. I had my doubts when they said you have to drive this – I’m vertically challenged, 5 foot – and it looked like a mountain to climb into. I really enjoyed my job, outside no desk for me!

I can’t imagine having to drive that thing through the centre of town on a busy 4 lane highway with everyone else zipping by and pushing and shoving for road space. You can’t even *see* a small car past the nose of the truck if it pulls in front too quickly…

It’s not the biggest in the yard, but it’s definitely currently the newest and shiniest. The really big prime movers pull the road trains, the huge three-trailer setups that do the big cross-country runs, and aren’t allowed in urban areas. I’m lucky he doesn’t drive one of those, I’d hardly see him…

Very beautiful rig! Your husband’s employers really do treat them right! I don’t speak a bit of Zulu, and tried to use Google Translate on “Phambili Nge Sibonelo” I got: “With Pattern” LOL, I don’t think that’s right! So what does it mean?

I think if he could, he’d totally ban phones in cars. The number of times he’s had lucky escapes from texting drivers crossing the centre line, and one of his colleagues wasn’t so lucky. The truck was damaged, but the other driver didn’t make it… His phone goes hands-free the minute he climbs aboard, he doesn’t have to touch a thing, and he uses it for listening to talking books, mostly!